UN auditors will examine North Korean program

I love hearing about unique jobs that could be open to me in the future, and this is one such job.

The United Nations has a Board of Auditors that audits UN programs and reports along similar lines to a regular financial statement audit. The Board consists of three members from UN countries, rotating one out and a new one in every two years. The chairmanship is currently held by the Philippines, and France and South Africa round out the trio.

Canada has had two turns on the Board, but none in the past 27 years. In other words, none since before I was born.

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Blogs catching on for BDO in the UK

This is cool: BDO Stoy Hayward‘s Managing Partner Jeremy Newman has a blog.

It’s no surprise he was voted Accountancy Age’s Personality of the Year – this guy is switched on. I think it goes without saying – and it’s a constant theme for my fellow accountant bloggers – that we need more folks at the top catching the blogging fever.

My comments echo those of Dennis Howlett, made last week when a journalist at the British Accountancy Age shone the spotlight on Newman’s blog.

BDO in the UK is sizzling these days. And with a Managing Partner this in tune with technology, it’s not hard to see why.

FIN 48, auditor confidentiality, and increasing the minimum wage

Since the last one went so well, and since there have been many posts this week on my fellow accountant blogs that I’d like to highlight, here’s another quick round-up of three interesting nuggets:

Dan Meyer of Tick Marks talks about a new standard in the US called FIN 48, which requires companies making assumptions regarding tax-related policies to document and disclose those assumptions and provide a range of possible outcomes.

He asks the natural next question: “With IRS personnel theoretically able to look up these disclosures, will companies be less willing to take aggressive positions?” It’s a good question, and I think we know the answer! I wonder if the same type of standard will show up in Canadian GAAP before we converge with international standards. (Wonder how that convergence thing is going – haven’t heard much lately!)

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